Tom Oates column: Uthoff departure a black eye for UW basketball

That's how it goes in today's twitter-driven world. Stories bubble to the surface, sides are taken, reputations are trashed and the media quickly moves on to some other topic. Problem is, it doesn't go away that quickly for the subjects of the firestorm, who are left to deal with the fallout.

The University of Wisconsin's appeals process mercifully put an end to three days of media madness Thursday, granting Uthoff the freedom to transfer to any men's basketball program that doesn't call the Big Ten Conference home. Meanwhile, the holier-than-thou national media are patting themselves on the back for saving Uthoff from the evil Bo Ryan and for helping to free college athletes from the perils of having to honor a commitment.

All is not well, however, even when it ends well.

The Uthoff affair is another public-relations nightmare for UW athletics, joining the John Chadima scandal and the squabble between the athletic department and the WIAA. Even though Ryan played entirely by the rules, the near-hysteria in the media cast him, the program and the school in a bad light. Worse, much of it could have been avoided if UW had shown more awareness, reacted more quickly and formulated a plan of attack in the face of a growing crisis.

Before we go any futher, this must be said: No matter why Ryan blocked Uthoff from transferring to certain schools - he said it was merely to force Uthoff to explain his actions to UW officials - the UW coach did not overstep his bounds. Under NCAA rules, coaches are allowed to place such limitations on athletes and they do it all the time.

Most coaches block players from transferring within the conference (the Big East even has a rule preventing it). Others, including Michigan's John Beilein, prevent them from going to schools that are on future schedules. Some also prevent players from going to schools they think may be guilty of tampering. All three of those appeared to factor into Ryan's thinking on Uthoff.

Ryan thought what he was doing was reasonable and prudent for the program, but his decision to block Uthoff from 26 schools became a rallying cry for national media types who have been pushing an agenda to give players the freedom to transfer without restrictions. They were looking for something to support their argument and UW handed it to them. Armed and dangerous, they quickly blew the story out of proportion, calling Ryan "petty" and "vindictive" for producing such an "excessive" list of schools.

But such a reaction is to be expected in the media these days. What's equally alarming is the inability of anyone at UW to recognize the potential for damage to the program's image and get out in front of the story. Ryan and others didn't get their message out quickly enough or clearly enough. Indeed, they kept handing critics the ammunition they needed to drag UW through the media gutter.

What if Uthoff's letter of appeal hadn't sat unopened in the mailbox of assistant athletic director Justin Doherty for days, leading Uthoff to go public? What if Ryan hadn't added the entire ACC to the list of schools Uthoff couldn't talk to, a move that was seen as piling on? What if Ryan hadn't gone on national radio and added fuel to the fire by giving what were widely viewed as evasive answers?

All those actions escalated the story to where it was the national topic of the day Thursday. Overnight, Ryan and UW had become the unsuspecting faces of a much larger issue - freedom of movement for athletes. The tidal wave of ridicule on the airwaves and the Internet unfairly cast Ryan as a villian.

In one respect, Ryan has himself to blame. When he appears on regional and national stages, he often is engaging but at times is defensive and combative with the media. That prickly relationship probably made it easy for some members of the media to make the leap that Ryan was being vindictive with regards to Uthoff.

The shame of it is that Ryan has run an exemplary program at UW. He wins, develops players, graduates players and doesn't run off those who can't compete at the level he demands (See: Gavinksi, J.P.). He said he sought the counsel of other coaches before making his call on Uthoff because he hasn't had much experience with transfers and he's right. In 11 years, only two players, Neil Plank and Mickey Perry, have made the decision to transfer out.

Speaking with local reporters Thursday, Ryan insisted this burst of bad publicity won't hurt his recruiting or his program. However, image is everything in 2012 and, as UW found out this week, a brush fire can explode into a firestorm in an instant, leaving a black mark on a program that is hard to wash out.

For UW, this episode looked bad. And in today's world, if it looks bad, it usually is bad.